For example, as information output apparatuses for wordprocessors, personal computers (PC), facsimile apparatuses, and the like, printing apparatuses, which print information of desired characters, images, and the like on sheet-like print media such as paper sheets, films, and the like, have been prevalently used.
In recent years, most of printing apparatuses are connected to information processing apparatuses (or often referred to as external apparatuses) such as an IBM PC, PC-compatible computer, and the like which have a window operating system (e.g., Microsoft Windows® operating system or the like) when they are used.
In this configuration, i.e., in a print system including a printing apparatus and information processing apparatus, or the like, for example, a document (e.g., print data or the like) created by application software which runs on the information processing apparatus (e.g., a host computer) is converted into a format suited to the printing apparatus by a printer driver stored in the information processing apparatus, and the converted print data or the like is transferred from the host computer to the printing apparatus.
On the other hand, upon reception of print data transferred from the host computer, the printing apparatus temporarily stores the received print data in a print data buffer. Then, the printing apparatus reads out the stored print data, and prints images or characters on a print medium while scanning a printhead on the print medium-by a predetermined band width.
Note that the print data buffer is used to absorb the difference between the transfer speed of print data transferred by the printer driver, and the print speed printed by the printing apparatus. For example, when the print data buffer becomes empty (stores no print data), the printing apparatus stops its print operation; when the print buffer becomes full of print data, the printing apparatus sends a transfer denial message to the information processing apparatus such as a host computer or the like so as not to transfer print data.
After that, when the print operation continues and the print data buffer has an empty space, the printing apparatus cancels the transfer denial message. At this time, when the printing apparatus sends a transfer denial message to the information processing apparatus, the printer driver stored in the information processing apparatus acquires error information from the printing apparatus to recognize the operation state of the printing apparatus after an elapse of a predetermined period of time. When any error has occurred in the printing apparatus, the printer driver immediately displays it to notify the user of this.
However, in the conventional printing apparatus, when a transfer denial message of print data from the information processing apparatus continues for a long period of time due to a factor other than occurrence of an error, the printer driver detects time-out due to transfer denial, and terminates abnormally.
In order to avoid abnormal termination due to time-out, a technique for, when the print buffer of the printing apparatus becomes nearly full of data, lowering the reception speed of print data by the printing apparatus to extend the time until the buffer becomes full of data (e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-297032 or the like) has been disclosed.
With this process, a transfer denial factor in the printing apparatus can be removed before the printer driver detects a time-out.
However, in the aforementioned conventional ink-jet print system, when the print buffer of the printing apparatus becomes nearly full of data, the reception speed of print data must be lowered to extend the time until the buffer becomes full of data. Hence, a technique (control member or the like) that implements such control must be equipped, resulting in an expensive printing apparatus.
In order to avoid the aforementioned time-out, a long time-out time may be set in the information processing apparatus. However, this measure induces another problem (e.g., when any abnormality has occurred in the printing apparatus, error display indicating occurrence of abnormality is delayed due to an increase in time-out time). For this reason, the printing apparatus that takes such measure against a time-out becomes not easy to use.